


Present

by Ruenis



Series: InaWeek 2017 [2]
Category: Aldnoah.Zero (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Fluff, InaWeek: Lover, M/M, Valentine's Day
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-13
Updated: 2017-02-13
Packaged: 2018-09-23 04:29:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,257
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9640805
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ruenis/pseuds/Ruenis
Summary: present;adjectivea) in attendance ofb) existing or occurring nowverba) to give something [to someone]





	

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the last day of [InaWeek](https://inaweek2017.tumblr.com)! Today's theme: The Lover!

“You aren't very popular, are you?”

Inaho raises his head at the familiar voice, noting that it is just as teasing as it usually is, though for some reason, it feels a bit _much_ today.

Calm pulls out a small handful of Valentine's cards and bags of assorted candies and chocolates from his pocket, gently placing them down on Inaho's desk. The candies are all brightly coloured, save the chocolates of course, and are decorated somewhat with neat, white adornments: hearts, a few childish smiley faces.. “What'd you say to the girls in class this time, Inaho?” he asks curiously, and this time he does sound _genuine_ , though Inaho knows full well the blond is still going to tease him relentlessly.

Inaho picks up one of the smaller packages, and starts to open it slowly. “Nothing..” he says, tone even, and he pulls out the smallest piece of candy, something that resembles a cookie with a heart-shaped strawberry centre, “You do know most of these aren't homemade?”

“And that, Inaho, is exactly why you didn't get anything for Valentine's Day..” Calm points out, sighing quietly as he takes the small box from Inaho's hands, inspecting it himself. It _does_ look to be store bought, though he is not one to actually care about that kind of thing; the girl who had given it to him, after all, is kind and sweet. “You know, in Canada, we don't make a huge deal about that kind of stuff. Most of us are just happy to get something,” he says, shaking his head a bit and gesturing for Inaho to return the cookie; he knows the other will not eat it.

Inaho does return it, placing it gently back inside its assigned compartment. He shifts his attention back to the other packages, and sets two of them aside; these two are clear bags with colourful hearts and Japanese characters pasted onto it, and the contents inside are all seemingly chocolate of varying degrees. “These two are homemade,” he says, ignoring what Calm had said before.

“Those two are from Inko and Nina,” Calm says, sighing again. “They didn't give you yours yet, because they figured it'd melt in your bag, and you don't eat sweets that often, _anyway_. If you come to the party tonight, they'll give it to you before you leave,” he explains, and he starts gathering up the cards and packages again, shoving them into his pocket; how they all seem to fit rather nicely comes as little surprise, given the blond is prone to wearing things with ample amounts of air to breathe and space.

“What party?”

Calm lifts his head a bit at the question, narrowing his eyes a bit. “Are you.. serious?”

“Yes. What party?”

“The.. party that the girls have been talking about all week. _That_ party.”

Inaho pauses for a few moments, thinking, trying to recall when they had discussed such a thing. They had certainly discussed getting together and perhaps going out, to a restaurant or some other place, but.. “It was implied that we'd be having a get-together, but whether or not it was a _party_ is debata–..”

“It's a party, now,” Calm interrupts, and he is not annoyed or bothered, just merely stating a fact before Inaho can go off explaining, which may take several minutes for him to finish. Smiling somewhat, playful again, he asks, “So? Are you coming? Yes or no?”

“.. I was planning on studying tonight for a test..–”

“Slaine's coming.”

Inaho tenses up a bit, hesitant, now.

“Wouldn't you like to see him again? Outside of university, I mean. Since he graduated, he doesn't come by the high school as often..”

“.. I'll come,” Inaho says, completely disregarding Calm's comment.

“Great. I'll tell Inko to mark you down as 'present', then.”

 

 

“You have to change.”

Glancing down at his outfit, Inaho does not see anything wrong with the way he is currently dressed. It is, after all, just his high school uniform; because he wears it often, it leads to him being mistaken for a cosplayer.. people think he is much younger than he looks. Despite his birthday having been recently, people still have trouble believing he is an eighteen year-old high school student. “Why?” he asks Inko, who is frowning somewhat as she gazes at him.

“You can't wear that to a restaurant. You have to wear something _nice_ ,” she insists.

“This is nice,” Inaho says simply, and he means it.

“It's _Valentine's_ Day,” Inko points out, “We're taking a _nice_ picture after dinner, please wear something suitable. Everyone's going to be wearing pink, white, and red. Match with us.”

Pink. White. Red. The standard, normal colours for Valentine's Day.

_Of course._

Inaho is tempted to point out that there _is_ white and red in his uniform, but thinks better of it when Inko crosses her arms against her chest, clearly about to shoot down whatever comment or rebuttal he attempts to make. So, instead, he says, “Look through my closet and choose something suitable, then.”

That seems to work perfectly, because the brunette grins as she strives past him, humming, “Gladly.”

 

 

The restaurant is noisy.

Well, at least, slightly noisier than Inaho is usually used to. They usually dine at the school's cafeteria, or the nearby café that serves particularly good coffee, as well as a nice spread of breakfast; they enjoy dining there whenever they have free time in the morning, before classes, though Nina sometimes insists they get dessert after dinner.

Gently pulling at his red sweater, Inaho remains quiet as he tries to get comfortable in an unfamiliar setting.

Inko kicks him from under the table, not hard, just enough to get him to look up, and she is frowning again. “You look _fine_ ,” she insists, and her violet eyes flicker between Inaho's rose red woollen sweater and the blush coloured vest under it, “Your clothes are better than Calm's, at least, which you would've had to wear if you didn't keep those ones.”

Inaho glances over at the blond, who has a sheepish grin on his lips. “Wearing bright pink would have been distracting, yes,” he mumbles, looking away from Calm after a few moments; Calm's shirt is bright enough that is casts bright, _bright_ pink shadows, even in the dimmed lighting. He is not sure he would have even fit into Calm's clothing, much less have looked decent in it; this outfit, at least, Yuki had bought for him a few years ago for some other Valentine's event, and he does not _hate_ it.

The girls, at least, decided to wear red and white in moderation; Inaho thanked them earlier for not wearing something painful to look at, for not wearing something unnecessarily bright.

“Inaho, you could eat the chocolate while we wait,” Nina suggests, and she looks kind of excited, green eyes aflame, “Calm liked it, even the dark chocolate ones.” They had spent many hours trying to get all the pieces correctly sized, trying to make sure they had gotten the taste exactly right, and the orange jam inside had taken a bit to perfect; they had burnt a few batches.

In other words, _“Please try the chocolate we handmade for you”_.

Pulling out one of the plastic bags from his sweater's pocket, he sets it on the table between them, listening to the chocolate pieces clunk quietly against the wood, and he gazes at the bag in silence for a few moments.

“It's not _poisonous_ , Inaho. Just eat it,” Inko insists, and she has that knowing frown on her features, the one she unconsciously puts on when Inaho starts to overthink things. She has been working part time at her parent's restaurant after school whenever she is free, and intends on majoring in something Inaho recalls related to the culinary arts.. Food science, it might have been.

“What's not poisonous?”

Inaho turns his head immediately at the familiar voice, and finds himself gazing up at a familiar, stunning mixture of blue-green and white. “Slaine,” he breathes, the name caught in his throat.

Slaine smiles warmly upon meeting Inaho's eyes, holding up a hand to politely wave, “Good evening, Inaho.” The blond gently pushes on Inaho's chair, forcing him to adjust the chair, “You know, you might fall out of your chair if you keep doing that. Please face forward.”

Calm beams, leaning forward a bit in his own chair, “As expected of the future kindergarten teacher! Always worried about children's safety!”

“I'm not a child,” Inaho retorts, though he does as Slaine says, facing forward so that he does not end up tipping the chair over; such a thing, in a public place – in front of _Slaine_ – may have consequences.

“So? What's not poisoned?” Slaine asks curiously, slowly pulling out the chair beside Inaho's own so that he can sit himself down. His gaze flickers to the small plastic bag full of chocolates and Inaho's face, a curious look in his eyes, “Oh, the chocolates? They're not poisoned. Inko and Nina outdid themselves; mine were white chocolate with blueberries inside. I'm going to have to return the favour when White Day comes.” At that, he shifts his attention to the two girls, and he has that warm smile on again, the one that makes Inaho's heart catch.

“I didn't know you could cook,” Inaho finds himself saying, the words coming out before he can properly formulate a response to the new information.

Slaine looks at him again, a pleasantly surprised look on his features, “Of course I can cook. I have to make meals on my own, since papa's out often doing scientific research.”

_Ah. That makes sense._

“Slaine, didn't you say you had something for Inaho's birthday, since you've been busy with university this week?” Calm asks, but from his tone, it seems as if he already knows the answer.

“I do, but it's for after dinner. And I don't think it'd be kind to present Inaho with a gift when Yuki isn't here.”

Inaho finds himself intrigued.

Slaine only became a student at their school two years ago, and he graduated last year, is now attending a university that is close enough for them all to still be together, but his classes and extracurricular activities leave almost no room for free time. He helps a preschool teacher with classes, most days after his own.

The blond only offers Inaho a smile when they catch each other's gaze, and Inaho swears his face feels hot all of a sudden.

 

“Here, Nao! Say 'ahh'!”

Inaho feels the tips of his ears burning, lit aflame by some kind of voice in his head telling him that this is not how to properly behave in a rather nice restaurant; no doubt, if his friends had any shame, they would notice people shooting them odd looks from how energetic and rowdy they currently are.

“Please stop taking odd pictures, Inko,” Inaho mumbles, frowning slightly at his sister, who is leaning a bit over the table to try and give him some kind of mushroom soup.. it has a rather odd look to it, the soup itself a greyish colour, and it seems to be full of chopped mushrooms and bits of potato and nothing else. Still, he indulges his sister, allowing her to spoon feed him the morsel without any complaint.

Slaine laughs beside him, laughs for what seems to be the hundredth time tonight, and he is again hiding that smile of his with one of his hands; he has always seemed rather reluctant to laugh around people. Last year, Calm had accidentally made him cry from one joke too much, though he had been laughing at first – Inaho later learnt that that particular occasion was the first time Slaine had been able to laugh like that in a very, very long time.

“.. you shouldn't hide your smile,” Inaho says after a moment, and Slaine looks shocked for a moment, eyes wide –

A soft _snap_ cuts him off, the sound of the shutter on Inko's camera.

Inaho blinks a few times, trying to get the bright white out of his eyes, and when he opens them again, he finds Slaine doing the same, looking a bit owlish as he struggles to clear his vision. He remains quiet for a few moments before shifting his gaze to Inko, who is _beaming_ at him, as if she had done the most wonderful thing. “Are these many pictures necessary?” he questions, wondering just what she intends to do with all of the photos; it is almost certain that she will get each and every one of them developed, but what happens to them afterward is anyone's guess.

“Of course,” Inko says simply, leaving it at that.

“I think she said earlier, she wanted lots of pictures of you being 'in the moment', or something,” Calm offers, and that is a slightly better explanation and reason than Inko's simple response. Another of those sheepish grins rests on his lips, and Inaho cannot figure out why tonight seems to have everyone acting a bit differently than normal.

Valentine's has never really been a sort of _special_ event for them, it was just a slightly busier day than normal, with everyone giving gifts to everyone else, giving out cards and candies and chocolates. Sometimes, they do go out, though it is usually to just get ice cream or crepes at some nearby café, whatever they feel like doing, that day.

But today, they are acting _odd._ Even Slaine, who is not talkative, but _talks_ , has yet to bring up a topic of interest or anything about what he is doing in his classes.

Nina is first to break the awkward silence, with the gentle, low tapping of her chopsticks against her plate. “Well.. it's.. always nice to have pictures when the photo is in real-time,” she says quietly, managing a tiny, secretive smile, “You know, when the subjects in the photo look as if they're living 'in the present'.. And we don't have many photos of you.. so Inko said she wanted to take a lot today, so that we could all look at them together in the future..” Her explanation ends with her trailing off, voice going lower and lower until she finally shifts her gaze toward Slaine, who ducks his head.

Inaho's gaze flickers between the two, and her explanation warrants a question: “Is today special?”

She had made it sound as if something was going to happen today, that there would be a _reason_ for them to look back on today.

The sudden, blunt question causes Inko to lower her phone, and Nina tightens her grip on the chopsticks – if they were not made of metal, she may have snapped them in surprise. Calm swallows quietly, swallows what sounds to be a hard ball of nerves, and Yuki only shifts in her seat.

Slaine remains silent beside him, extending the awkward tension before he finally moves, pulling something out of the pocket on his pink sweater. “Here,” he mumbles, and he places the _something_ on the table in the space between them, “I.. told you we should have waited until after dinner. Sweets ruin the appetite, and this was.. supposed to be.. more romantic..”

He sounds _annoyed_ , almost, and it seems that Inaho's question had ruined whatever plans they had all made in an attempt to surprise him. He sounds annoyed, but he is also speaking the way he used to; softly, so, so softly, in that slow, careful manner that had Inaho wondering if perhaps Slaine just did not know what words to pick.

Inaho shifts his gaze to whatever it was Slaine had hidden in his pocket, and blinks upon seeing that it is merely a small, cardboard box with pink construction paper glued on its sides. “What is this?” he questions, picking it up and inspecting it – he almost flips it over when Slaine gently grabs his hand, stopping him, and he notices the pink blush dusting his cheeks. “Oh,” he breathes, “You..”

“I.. know I didn't get you a birthday present, and I couldn't attend the party, so.. Inko said she would plan out tonight, so that I could..” Slaine releases Inaho's hand after righting him, and he starts to pull at his hair, gaze slipping, “And.. and I didn't have very much time to make you something proper, so I stuck with dark chocolate and custard filling..” The annoyance is gone, now, replaced with his old shyness, and he seems to be having trouble meeting Inaho's eyes, again.

“This is my present?”

“It's – it's _part_ of it,” Slaine admits, and Calm snickers quietly behind his hand. Ignoring the outburst, he continues, and the tips of his pale fingers start to turn red as he applies a bit more pressure to the small tuft of hair in his grasp, “The other part.. is, erm.. it's a question.”

“Go ahead.”

Going quiet, Slaine chews on his bottom lip, seeming hesitant to ask whatever it is he intends on asking. A quiet _thud_ causes him to tense up, and he looks to Inko afterward, startled.

“Ask him!” Inko whispers, holding up her phone. The lens is still off, shutter ready to snap another photo at any given moment, and her violet eyes have that excited look in them.

“Ask him, Slaine. Nao's not going to bite,” Yuki prompts, and she, too, has that excited look in her eyes, excited and bright and expectant.

Slaine manages a tiny nod, cheeks still dusted pink, and asks in the softest voice Inaho has heard him use, “Will you go out with me?”

“You'd.. like to be my lover?” Inaho questions, “That's your present?” Setting the cardboard box back down on the table, he starts to open it as he waits for Slaine's response, wanting things to be perfectly clear before he gives him a proper answer; just one date will not suffice, if that is what Slaine intends.

Slaine nods again, and he still looks kind of shy, “I've.. been trying to figure out.. how to ask you, since last year..”

 _Since last year._ Inaho allows the comment to repeat in his head, and his heart skips a few beats, body and mind trying to figure out how he had not picked up on that sooner; perhaps he was too busy wondering himself, how to properly ask out the boy he had only known for two years. “Yes,” he says after a moment, and Slaine looks relieved, finally allowing his hand to slip to his lap, “I'll accept your present. Thank you, Slaine.”

They hear a quiet _snap_ again, and Inaho turns his head a bit to meet Inko's gaze, her eyes practically aflame with joy. “I'll print all these out and Nina and I will put them in a scrapbook,” she says, and the excitement is clear in her voice, still clear in her eyes, “That way, you can have chocolate _and_ a reminder of this day as your present, Inaho.”

“Happy Valentine's Day, Nao,” Yuki hums, elated with how things had turned out, even if they had not gone exactly to plan, “You look happy.”

“You're _smiling_ , Inaho,” Calm points out, and Inaho brings his fingers to his mouth, feeling the slight curve that affirms the blond's statement.

“.. happy birthday, Inaho,” Slaine murmurs, and he is smiling, too, _happy_ as he gazes at the brunet at his side, “And happy Valentine's. I'm.. glad you accepted your present.”

“Of course,” Inaho says, nodding somewhat, “I'll be sure to treasure them both.”

 

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Valentine's! ❤❤ I hope you all enjoyed InaWeek!


End file.
